World premiere at DOC NYC in New York City on November 7, 2019.
Brian Belovitch is the embodiment of “gender fluid.” He lived as a male in his childhood and teen years, transitioned into a transgender woman in his 20s, and then decided to go back to living as a gay man when he was in his 30s. Why did he want to be a woman in the first place? Belovitch explains in this documentary: “I loved the idea of being something other than myself. Let’s forget about Brian, and become some other creation.” How did that work out for him? “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me” tells that fascinating story in a way that is entertaining and informative without being exploitative.
Karen Bernstein, who directed “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me,” is a close friend of Belovitch, and that kinship shows in how the film was made, as he’s allowed to share his life story with dignity and respect. The movie’s main flaw (which is a minor one that doesn’t take away from the movie’s overall message of self-acceptance) is the editing, which jumps back and forth in the story timeline. This zig-zag narrative might be off-putting to people who like biographical stories told in chronological order.
So, who is Brian Belovitch? Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1963, Belovitch was raised primarily in Providence, Rhode Island, in a family of two daughters and five sons. (Some of his siblings are interviewed in the movie.) His father was a Russian Jew, his mother was Portuguese, and he grew up in a culture of homophobia, which was very common in families of that era. As a child, Belovitch was shamed and bullied by his family members and other people for being effeminate, and his father often physically abused him. When strangers mistook him for a girl, his mother would get very angry and offended. In the documentary, Belovitch looks back on this traumatic period in his life and says, “By today’s standards, I would be considered a trans kid.”
A turning point in his life was his teenage relationship with his first boyfriend, Paul Bricker (Belovitch calls him a “soul mate”), whom he met at a gay bar in Providence. Unlike his unhappy home life where his parents had trouble accepting his sexuality, Belovitch found complete acceptance in his relationship with Bricker, whose mother, Gloria, treated Belovitch like a family member. Gloria, who is interviewed in the documentary, says of Belovitch: “He was worth putting in my time and love.”
While living in the Lola Apartments (what Belovitch calls a “trans ghetto”) in Providence, he began dressing as a woman. He says, “I was addicted to the reaction and attention I got from folks.” Throughout his younger life, as a man and as a woman, Belovitch says he would often be a sex worker, out of desperation to help pay the bills. He says in the documentary that his biggest decisions were “made for love,” but “most of my decisions were made for survival.”
At 18 years old, he moved to New York City and tried to live as a gay man for about nine months. His relationship with Paul Bricker ended, and then Belovitch decided to commit to being a transgender woman, and changed his name to Natalie Belo. Belovitch says there was another reason why he wanted to live as a woman, besides preferring the attention that he got as a female: He didn’t want to be a gay, and he didn’t want to be a man, because being a man reminded him of the homophobic men from his childhood. Even though Belovitch tells his life story with amusing wit, there’s a lot of deep-seated trauma that’s brought up in this documentary (including childhood sexual abuse), so people who are easily triggered by similar issues should be warned that this is not always an easy film to watch.
While living as Natalie Belo, Belovitch said he spent “thousands” on his physical transformation, including electrolysis, breast augmentation, butt implants (he still has silicone-related health issues) and female hormones. As Natalie, she met her first husband, David (a bartender at the time), in 1979, and they married in 1980. David joined the Army, and the couple moved to Germany, where David was stationed. While in Germany, Natalie became a “Tupperware lady,” but being an Army wife didn’t suit her, and she was still going through some confusion about her gender identity. She and David broke up after they moved back to New York City.
Natalie’s life then took an exciting but dark turn, as she reinvented herself as aspiring actress/singer Natalia “Tish” Gervais (this became her legal name for a while), and she plunged into the downtown Manhattan nightlife scene of the ’80s. She found a small level of fame as a cabaret singer/celebutante, including as a member of the “It’s My Party” revue. Her close friends included other nightlife scenesters, such as entertainment journalist Michael Musto (who’s interviewed in the documentary) and drag queen Nelson Sullivan. However, Tish became an alcoholic and drug addict, and spent years as a slave to her addictions. She got sober in 1986, after a rock-bottom incident when she stole money from the box office of a theater owned by her friend Edith O’Hara, who gave Tish an ultimatum to go to rehab and stay off of drugs.
It was around this time that Belovitch decided to go back to living as a man. He’s now an addiction counselor who’s happily married to second husband Jim (a botanist), who’s also interviewed in the movie, which has a scene of them attending a Pride parade in Providence. (This isn’t spoiler information, since it’s shown in the beginning of the film.) To understand Belovitch’s difficult journey to self-acceptance, he says it partly comes from his “fear of being average,” but he admits: “Having lived the life that I’ve lived is hardly boring dinner conversation.” As for coming to terms with what his true identity is, he sums it up this way: “All I ever wanted to be was comfortable.”
Jacques Selosse employees in “Vas-y Coupe!” (Photo courtesy of By the By Productions)
“Vas-y Coupe!”
Directed by Laura Naylor
French with subtitles
World premiere at DOC NYC in New York City on November 9, 2019.
UPDATE: “Wine Crush (Vas-y Coupe!)” is the new title of the movie.
If you’ve ever wondered about some of the people behind the making of French champagne, you’ll get a look in “Vas-y Coupe!,” a candid but slow-paced peek into the crucial harvesting process. “Vas-y Coupe!” translates to “Go ahead, cut!” in English. This movie focuses on Jacques Selosse, a family-run vineyard in France’s Champagne region and what happens during harvest season. The documentary was inspired by director Laura Naylor’s real-life experiences harvesting grapes at the vineyard in 2016, about a year after she first discovered the vineyard through a sommelier friend.
Founded in the 1950s, Jacques Selosse is located in the small village of Avize, and much of the culture in the movie feels like a 1950s time warp. The roles of the men and women are, for the most part, sharply segregated by gender. Although there are a few harvesters who are female (and they’re briefly spotted on camera), the male harvesters and their male supervisors get most of the focus in this documentary. The women in the film are primarily shown in the kitchen and fulfilling the roles of cooks, food servers and maids. The women are preoccupied with preparing meals and trying on beauty products, while the men do the dirty work of picking and distilling the grapes. Even with the Selosse family that owns the vineyard, the men in the family are the ones who get to taste and evaluate the company’s product made from the harvested grapes.
In addition to the gender lines that are clearly defined, there are also class lines that are almost never crossed. The laborers know their place as servants, and there’s sometimes tension with the vineyard owners/supervisors over wage issues. The rough-and-tumble nature of this working-class crew sometimes leads to them clashing with each other, as minor squabbles are captured on camera. But if you’re looking for shocking, dramatic moments, you won’t find them here in this mostly quiet film. To its credit, what’s shown in this movie doesn’t look staged, like a reality show.
But to its detriment, the movie suffers from editing that shows too much repetition of mundane tasks. It’s not necessary for viewers to keep seeing similar scenes of the women in the kitchen discussing the meals they’re preparing, followed by scenes of the women serving the meals to the laborers gathered in the dining room area. In order for a documentary like this to stand out, there has to be at least one big, riveting personality to keep viewers interested, but the people in this movie are just too average to make this a compelling story. And unfortunately, the movie gets bogged down in so much “slice of life” footage that the end result is a documentary that is duller than it should be.
UPDATE: First Run Features has renamed the movie “Wine Crush (Vas-y Coupe)” and will release the movie on digital and VOD on October 8, 2020.
The 10th annual DOC NYC—which took place in New York City from November 6 to November 15, 2018—has continued its status as an outstanding international festival for documentary visual media, with more than 300 films at the festival. Almost all of the DOC NYC screenings and other events took place at the SVA Theatre, IFC Center and Cinépolis Chelsea. DOC NYC also has panel discussions about filmmaking, offering a wealth of opportunities to share knowledge, discover new talent and network with professionals. This year’s DOC NYC was dedicated to D.A. Pennebaker, the iconic documentarian (best known for “Don’t Look Back”), who died on August 1, 2019, at the age of 94.
AWARD WINNERS
Wang Tiancheng in “City Dream”
DOC NYC 2019 also had competitions, with all voted for by juries, except for the Audience Award and the Kanopy DOC NYC U Award. The winners were:
Viewfinders Competition (for films with a distinct directorial vision): “City Dream,” director Weijun Chen’s look at a feisty street vendor Wang Tiancheng’s battle to not be displaced by the Urban Management Bureau in Wuhan, China.
Special mention: “Love Child,” director Eva Mulvad’s portrait of an Iranian man who flees Iran with his mistress and their son because of Iran’s death-penalty laws against adultery.
Metropolis Competition (for films with New York City stories): “Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back,” director John Carluccio’s profile of Tony-nominated entertainer Maurice Hines, the older brother of Gregory Hines.
Shorts Competition: “Bob of the Park,” director Jake Sumner’s profile of Robert “Birding Bob” DiCandido, who’s described in the DOC NYC materials as the “archvillain of New York City bird watchers.”
Special mentions: “A Childhood on Fire,” directed by Jason Hanasik; “Yves & Variation,” directed by Lydia Cornett
Audience Award: “I Am Not Alone,” director Garin Hovannisian’s profile of former Armenian political prisoner Nikol Pashinyan, who becomes a Member of Parliament and leads a peaceful protest against injustice.
DOC NYC PRO Pitch Perfect Award: “After Sherman,” directed by Jon-Sesrie Goff
Kanopy DOC NYC U Award (for student directors): “Kostya,” directed by Oxana Inipko (School of Visual Arts)
In addition, category awards were given to DOC NYC’s Short List films, which are considered frontrunners to be nominated for Oscars and other major film awards.
Short List: Features
“The Edge of Democracy” (Photo by Orlando Brito)
Directing Award: “The Edge of Democracy,” directed by Petra Costa
Producing Award: “American Factory,” produced by Steven Bognar, Julie Parker Benello, Jeff Reichert and Julia Reichert
Editing Award: “Apollo 11,” edited by Todd Douglas Miller
Cinematography Award: “The Elephant Queen,” cinematography by Mark Deeble
Special Recognition for Courage in Filmmaking: “For Sama,” director Waad al-Kateab
Short List: Shorts:
Directing Award: “Stay Close,” directed by Luther Clement and Shuhan Fan
The 2019 DOC NYC Visionaries Tribute (which has non-competitive categories), an invitation-only event presented on November 7, honored Martin Scorsese and Michael Apted, each with the Lifetime Achievement Award; “American Factory” directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichart with the Robert and Anne Drew Award for Documentary Excellence; and New York Women in Film & Television executive director Cynthia Lopez with the Leading Light Award.
Other celebrities who attended DOC NYC included Robbie Robertson, J.K, Simmons, Ron Howard, Katie Couric, Andre Leon Talley, Michael Moore, Kate Nash, Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Olivia Harrison.
Celebrating its 10th edition in 2019, the annual DOC NYC, which takes place in New York City, is one of the world’s leading documentary festivals, with a slate of more than 300 films from a diverse array of topics. In 2019, DOC NYC takes place from November 6 to November 15, and continues the festival’s tradition of offering an outstanding variety of feature films and short films, with several of the movies focusing on under-represented people and marginalized communities. Most of the festival’s events take place at the IFC Center, SVA Theatre and Cinépolis Chelsea. This year’s DOC NYC is dedicated to documentarian D.A. Pennebaker (“Don’t Look Back,” “The War Room”), who died on August 1, 2019, at the age of 94.
DOC NYC, which was co-founded by Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen, has also had an excellent track record when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Long before the 5050×2020 pledge to have gender parity for directors at film festivals, DOC NYC was ahead of its time by having a larger percentage of films from female directors than most other film festivals. Many other international film festivals are starting to catch up and make more of an effort to include movies from female directors. Beyond the gender parity issue, this year’s DOC NYC is a true definition of a “world-class” festival, since there are numerous ethnicities and cultures from around the world represented in the films at the festival. DOC NYC also offers panel discussions and filmmaker showcases through its DOC NYC PRO programming. Most of the discussions are geared to sharing behind-the-scenes knowledge about filmmaking.
Celebrities expected to attend the event include “Ask Dr. Ruth” star Ruth Westheimer; Lydia Lunch, L7 lead singer Donita Sparks and Sonic Youth lead singer Thurston Moore for “Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over”; “Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back” star Maurice Hines; and “The Longest Wave” star Robby Naish. The directors of almost all of the films at DOC NYC will be at the festival’s screenings for introductions and post-screening Q&As.
The annual Visionaries Tribute, which takes place this year on November 7, will honor Martin Scorsese and Michael Apted, each with the Lifetime Achievement Award; “American Factory” directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichart with the Robert and Anne Drew Award for Documentary Excellence; and New York Women in Film & Television executive director Cynthia Lopez with the Leading Light Award.
There are many films at DOC NYC that have premiered elsewhere, and some films that have already been released in theaters. DOC NYC’s Short List collection spotlights films that could be Oscar contenders. Every year so far, DOC NYC’s Short List has had a movie that has gone on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Films on DOC NYC’s Short List this year are “American Factory,” “The Apollo,” “Apollo 11,” “Ask Dr. Ruth,” “The Biggest Little Farm” (which was DOC NYC’s opening-night film in 2018), “The Cave,” “Diego Maradona,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “The Elephant Queen,” “For Sama,” “The Great Hack,” “Honeyland,” “The Kingmaker,” “Knock Down the House” and “One Child Nation.”
New this year is DOC NYC’s Winner’s Circle collection, which spotlights movies that have won awards at other film festivals, but might be underrated or overlooked for Oscar nominations. Winner’s Circle documentaries this year are “Advocate,” “Cold Case Hammarskjöld,” “The Fourth Kingdom: The Kingdom of Classics,” “Hope Frozen,” “Midnight Family,” “Midnight Traveler” and “Sea of Shadows.”
Even though most of the movies at DOC NYC have had their world premieres elsewhere, DOC NYC has several world premieres of its own. Here are the feature films that will have their world premieres at DOC NYC. A complete schedule can be found here.
In this autobiographical film, director Cara Jones examines her upbringing in the controversial Unification Church of the Reverend Sun Myong Koon, also known as the Moonies. The main thing that most people know about the Moonies is that they are a Korean-based organization that arranges marriages for its members, and they have massive group weddings where the brides and grooms often don’t know each other very well before they get married. World premiere: November 9 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
This is an intimate portrait of jazz bassist Buster Williams, who has worked with legends such as John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughn, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, Nancy Wilson and Herbie Hancock. World premiere: November 12 at IFC Center.
This film gives a rare inside look at Ganden, which is considered the most influential monastery in Tibetan Buddhism. Ganden is where the Dalai Lama got his start. World Premiere: November 12 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Howard Bloom was a high-powered entertainment publicist whose clients included Michael Jackson, Prince, Joan Jett, John Mellencamp, Billy Idol and Aerosmith. But when chronic fatigue syndrome left him housebound for 15 years, he reinvented himself as an author and philosopher. World Premiere: November 10 at SVA Theatre.
The current politically divided climate has led to an increase of documentaries exploring the impact of extreme hate groups. This documentary looks at Life After Hate, an organization of people who used to be neo-Nazis and white-supremacist skinheads, who are now trying to heal the wounds they caused in their communities and beyond. World premiere: November 13 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
For nearly 30 years, director Terry Gilliam tried to get a movie made based on the novel “Don Quixote,” but he experienced the kind of bad luck and setbacks that you might see in a movie. This documentary shows how the difficult journey was for Gilliam to make “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” which was finally released in 2019. World premiere: November 10 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
The rising cost of college education in the U.S. has increased a problem that is rarely talked about in the news media: Students often have to choose between paying for their tuition and paying for adequate, regular meals. World premiere: November 9 at SVA Theatre.
This unusual documentary tells the story of Brian Belovitch, who lived as a male in his childhood and teen years, transitioned into a woman (and aspiring entertainer in New York City) in his 20s, and then decided to go back to living as a man. World premiere: November 7 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
Suzanne Heintz is an artist with an eccentric schtick: She takes photographs of herself with mannequins (a man and a girl), and the pictures are supposed to look like family portraits. World premiere: November 10 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
Koshien is Japan’s national championship for high school baseball, and it’s considered the premiere recruiting resource for Japan’s baseball players who want to go pro. This film examines how competitive Koshien can be and why it’s a sporting event in Japan that’s almost the equivalent of the World Series in the United States. World premiere: November 12 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
The mysterious artist Clyfford Still was one of the leaders of the American Abstract Expressionist Movement, which included Jackson Pollack and Mark Rothko. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Still avoided the media spotlight, but this documentary examines the man behind the mystique. World premiere: November 12 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
Award-winning documentarian Joe Berlinger is known mostly for covering true crime (the West Memphis Three cases and serial killer Ted Bundy), but in “The Longest Wave” he turns to the sport of surfing to profile world-champion windsurfer Robby Naish. World premiere: November 13 at SVA Theatre.
“Los Últimos Frikis” translates in English to “The Ultimate Freaks.” The movie tells the story of Cuban heavy-metal band Zeus and the group’s struggles to survive for 30 years, starting with the Fidel Castro regime. The documentary focuses mainly on Zeus’ 25th anniversary tour in the Communist country, where heavy metal has been branded as the music of radicals. World premiere: November 10 at SVA Theatre.
Avant-garde singer Lydia Lunch was a pioneer in the No Wave movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This film explains why she became an underrated influence in the ’90s riot girl movement and how she’s made an impact on today’s generation of feminist rock singers. World premiere: November 9 at IFC Center.
Mai Khoi used to be an uncontroversial pop star in her native Vietnam. But then she became an outspoken activist, formed a left-wing band called the Dissidents, and became the target of the Vietnamese government. World premiere: November 13 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
This movie offers a rare look at Martin Margiela, the celebrated fashion designer who left the industry at the height of his fame in 2008, and then became a recluse who refused to be interviewed or photographed. Viewers get unprecedented access to Margiela and his thoughts on his legacy since he retired from the spotlight. World premiere: November 8 at SVA Theatre.
Tony-nominated entertainer Maurice Hines gets candid about his life, including his sometimes rocky relationship with his more famous younger brother, Gregory Hines. This film also addresses how being an openly gay black man impacted Maurice’s career. World Premiere: November 10 at SVA Theatre.
This is a movie that will no doubt push emotional buttons and spark debate over the rights that women should have when it comes to family planning and pregnancy. “Personhood” looks at what happened when Wisconsin resident Tammy Loertscher is jailed while pregnant because of how she wanted to handle the pregnancy. World premiere: November 8 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
Steve Talt, a native New Yorker, was the bodyguard to Sarah Pahlavi, the wife of the former Shah of Iran. Talt is still employed by Pahlavi, and he has taken it upon himself to find her stolen art collection, even if he has to hire shady people to help him do it. World premiere: November 14 at IFC Center.
Andy Señor co-directed this autobiographical film about his journey of bringing the Tony-winning musical “Rent” to Cuba, the homeland of his parents, with just 12 weeks to prepare. He also faces the challenges of Cuba’s restrictions on entertainment, especially since “Rent” tackles subjects that are taboo in much of Cuban culture, such as homosexuality and AIDS. World premiere: November 8 at SVA Theatre.
The River City Drum Corps in Louisville, Kentucky, has been an artistic outlet for African American youth for 30 years. Nardie White, the leader of the drum corps, is approaching retirement and must find a successor. World premiere: November 12 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
Donald Rugoff (who died in 1989 at the age of 62) was one of the underrated influencers of the independent film movement. The heir to the New York City-based arthouse theater chain Rugoff Theatres, he founded the independent film distribution company Cinema 5, which operated in the 1960s and 1970s, and helped boost the early careers of filmmakers such as Werner Herzog, Costa-Gravas and Nicolas Roeg. World premiere: November 7 at IFC Center.
For more than 60 years, James Stevenson (who died in 2017 at the age of 87) was a cartoonist at The New Yorker and then The New York Times, as well as a prolific children’s author. This film tells his story. World premiere: November 10 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
As Americans debate over how much the U.S. government is responsible for fixing people’s problems, this documentary takes a look at how U.S. residents are affected by opioid addiction, poverty and incarceration. World Premiere: November 13 at SVA Theatre.
Not to be confused with the 2009 Mike Tyson documentary “Tyson” (directed by James Toback), this new “Tyson” documentary (directed by David Michaels) is also about Mike Tyson, but it’s an updated look at the former boxing champ’s life. World premiere: November 9 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
The public education system is facing a crisis in many areas of the U.S., and this movie is a profile of the alternative school Natural Creativity Center, which has been operating for about 30 years in Pennsylvania. The unorthodox teachings of the school include students being allowed to direct their own learning. World premiere: November 11 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
“Vas-y Coupe!” translates to “Go ahead, cut!” in English. This movie takes a look at a family-run vineyard in France’s Champagne region and what happens during harvest season. World premiere: November 9 at SVA Theatre.
There’s an ongoing battle in the U.S. over what the federal minimum wage should be for restaurant workers who receive tips. On one side is the National Restaurant Association, which wants to keep the minimum wage as low as possible. (The federal minimum wage for an hourly salary will rise from $11.10 to $12, as of January 1, 2020.) On the other side is Restaurant Opportunities Center United, which is fighting for a higher minimum wage. World premiere: November 8 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
The ninth annual DOC NYC—which took place in New York City from November 8 to November 15, 2018—has continued its status as an outstanding international festival for documentary visual media. Almost all of the DOC NYC screenings and other events took place at the SVA Theatre, IFC Center and Cinépolis Chelsea. DOC NYC also has panel discussions about filmmaking, offering a wealth of opportunities to share knowledge, discover new talent and network with professionals.
AWARD WINNERS
DOC NYC 2018 also had competitions, with all voted for by juries, except for the Audience Award. The winners were:
Viewfinders Competition (for films with a distinct directorial vision): “A Little Wisdom,” director Yuqi Kang’s look at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery.
Metropolis Competition (for films with New York City stories): “Barbara Rubin & the Exploding NY Underground,” director Chuck Smith’s profile of filmmaker Barbara Rudin, who helped influence the careers of Andy Warhol and Lou Reed.
Shorts Competition: “In the Absence,” director Seung-Jun Yi’s examination of at the Sewol Ferry Disaster in South Korea. Special mentions when to the short documentaries “Obon ( directed by Andre Hoermann and Anna Samo) and “King of the Night,” directed by Molly Brass and Stephen Tyler.
Audience Award: “Out of Omaha,” director Clay Tweel’s profile of identical twin African American brothers who want to escape their lives of poverty and crime in Omaha. (Eligible films were in the Viewfinders and Metropolis competitions.)
DOC NYC PRO Pitch Perfect Award: “Civil War (or, Who Do We Think We Are),” director Rachel Boynton’s examination of how American remember the Civil War.
IF/Then Shorts Northeast American Pitch Award: “Mizuko (Water Child),” directed by Kira Dane and Katelyn Rebelo
The 2018 DOC NYC Visionaries Tribute (which has non-competitive categories), an invitation-only event presented on November 8, honored Orlando Bagwell and Wim Wenders, each with the Lifetime Achievement Award; “Free Solo” co-directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin with the Robert and Anne Drew Award for Documentary Excellence; and Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program director Tabitha Jackson with the Leading Light Award.
There were about 300 feature films and short films at the festival, in addition to the panels, so it’s impossible for one person to experience everything during the festival. But here is a recap of the world premieres that I saw at DOC NYC 2018:
This long-lost Aretha Franklin documentary was a surprise addition to DOC NYC, which announced the movie’s world premiere at the festival just one week before its debut on November 12, 2018. In January 1972, Franklin recorded her best-selling gospel album “Amazing Grace” over two days at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. “The documentary film Amazing Grace” chronicles the recording of the album. Due to legal reasons, including Franklin’s objections to the movie being made public, the release of the “Amazing Grace” documentary was delayed for decades. After Franklin’s passing in August 2018, and with her family’s approval, this movie is finally getting released, thanks largely to the efforts of producer Alan Elliott.
Aretha Franklin is undoubtedly the star of the show, but her brother/musical director Rev. Cecil Franklin, who had a more extroverted personality, could have easily upstaged her in the movie during certain scenes when he makes introductions and tells jokes during the show. But once Aretha sings, the power of her talent takes over, and it hits home how much a void can never be filled now that she has passed away. The movie also features glimpses of Aretha’s father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, as well as Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts, who were in the audience.
It’s hard to see why this emotionally resonant movie, whose highlights include performances of “What A Friend We Have in Jesus” and “Mary Don’t You Weep,” was kept from the public for all these years. There were reportedly audio problems that have apparently been fixed in this final cut. There are also many not-very-flattering closeups of Aretha, Cecil and other people literally sweating in the church, so certain people who objected to the release might have been self-conscious about how they looked. It’s unknown what the temperature in the church was like at the time of filming, but it’s obvious that all the sweating came from the sheer energy and passion that came from this show. And given that this movie was filmed in 1972, the low-tech appearance of everything is to be expected; it just adds to the “raw and real” ambience of the film. It’s in stark contrast to today’s slick music documentaries where artists are rarely shown sweating up a storm for their art. “Amazing Grace” will have a limited release in U.S. theaters on December 7, 2018, before getting a wider release sometime in 2019.
Directed by Jonathan Alter, John Block and Steve McCarthy
Pete Hamill and Jimmy Breslin in “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists” (Photo courtesy of HBO)
In this excellent profile of New York journalists Jimmy Breslin (Daily News) and Pete Hamill (New York Post, Daily News), the gregarious and blunt Breslin is the clear standout, compared to the more low-key and sophisticated Hamill. Even though Breslin and Hamill have some important things in common (they’re both Irish-American, born and raised in New York City, unapologetic liberals and authors of several books), the contrast between the two journalists is even more apparent: Breslin (who died in 2017 at the age of 88) was more a “man of the people,” while Hamill preferred to hobnob with celebrities and elite members of society. For example, Hamill dated Shirley MacLaine and Jackie Kennedy Onassis. The main thing that Breslin and Hamill have in common is their commitment to bringing a human side to reporting the news without losing their journalistic integrity and individual voices as writers. Breslin and Hamill were interviewed for this film, as well as their family members, colleagues, fans and critics.
The documentary does not shy away from examining Breslin’s and Hamill’s flaws and career lows, but Breslin has the more interesting story, and he is the more famous of the two. Growing up in a broken home with an emotionally distant mother, Breslin turned to journalism to channel his passion for telling stories. His oversized personality also came with an oversized ego that led to controversies (such accusations of being racist against an Asian female colleague or how he used his notorious Son of Sam correspondence to further his career), but like a lot of complicated people, Breslin also had a generous side to him. He usually championed the underdog, even when it led to ridicule or risking his personal safety.
The movie reminds people that Breslin was one of the few public figures in New York City who called for an “innocent until proven guilty” due process for the Central Park Five (five black and Latino teenagers accused of raping a white woman in Central Park in 1989), at a time when the majority of the public had already decided that the accused were guilty before the case ever went to trial. It turns out that Breslin was right: The five defendants did not commit the crime. DNA evidence and a confession from the real rapist exonerated the Central Park Five in 2012, but only after they spent several years in prison. Breslin was also unafraid of being in the minority with his criticism of subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz, who was glorified by many people for shooting four unarmed black teenagers with an unlicensed gun in 1984. The teenagers said they were panhandling, while Goetz said that he shot them because they tried to rob him.
Hamill, who grew up in a relatively stable middle-class home, had experience as a columnist and as editor-in-chief at New York City’s biggest tabloid newspapers: the New York Post and the Daily News. His managerial positions might explain why he was more cautious than Breslin when it came to hot-button topics. Even though Hamill was less likely than Breslin to personally stick his neck out for controversial social issues, the movie portrays Hamill as a lot less egotistical than Breslin, and such a beloved boss that most of the New York Post’s editorial employees famously walked out when Hamill was fired by a new owner in 1993. Hamill was eventually re-hired at the New York Post, but he later returned to the Daily News, where he would have on-again, off-again employment for several years. Now in his 80s, Hamill still writes books and contributes to publications such as the New York Times. Several of the talking heads interviewed for the documentary lament that Breslin and Hamill represent a bygone era of journalism when newspapers, not the Internet, was the main way that people read the news. HBO will premiere “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists” on January 28, 2019.
Directed by Vivian Vazquez and Gretchen Hildebrand
This film shows how New York City’s Bronx borough was able to rebuild after devastating fires in the 1970s displaced thousands of residents, who were mostly black and Latino. “Decade of Fire” co-director Vivian Vazquez, who was raised in the Bronx in the 1970s, narrates the movie, and discovers through investigative research that many of the fires were caused by years of neglect in updating building wiring and, more nefariously, the alleged result of arson by greedy landlords who wanted to profit from insurance payouts. The movie alleges that local residents desperate for cash were often secretly paid by landlords to set fire to the landlords’ buildings, and these crimes were rarely reported.
Gentrification and government restructuring of voting districts along racial lines are also offered as explanations for the fires, which the film concludes were mostly set to purposely displace ethnic minorities to move out of certain areas of the Bronx. Even with these disturbing allegations, the movie also offers inspirational hope by showing how displaced residents took it upon themselves to rebuild their neighborhoods without waiting for the government or landlords to assist them. Residents with little or no construction experience had a “do-it-yourself” approach to learn how to rebuild and take more control of their neighborhood buildings, which led to a significant decrease in the destructive fires. However, the movie ends on a cautionary note and serves as a warning that what happened in the Bronx in the 1970s could happen to other similar at-risk communities.
This inside look at photographer Jay Maisel’s move from his 72-room New York City studio building could have been subtitled “Confessions of an Artistic Hoarder.” It’s clear within the first 15 minutes of the film that Maisel has a hard time letting go of all the stuff he’s collected and kept over the years, much of which would have little value at a garage sale or a flea market, such as unfinished knick knacks, old magazines and tons of unused art material that has collected dust. As the saying goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Maisel had to sell the building, where he lived and worked since 1966, because he could no longer afford the real-estate taxes and other expenses of owning the property. It was one of the largest private real-estate deals in the city’s history.
The documentary shows the massive undertaking of packing up Maisel’s haphazardly stored possessions in order to move them to a smaller place. With help from his wife and daughter, who tactfully try to convince Maisel to get rid of things that are truly garbage, he alternates between reliving happy memories of being in the building; commenting on and showing his art; and stubbornly refusing to throw away items that he realistically no longer needs and have no value. Not all of his possessions are of the “pack rat” variety, but he’s accumulated enough that it’s sadly obvious that he might not have had to sell the building if he had cleared out the junk years ago and rented out all the usable space to help pay the bills. The movie does not mention if Maisel ever received this kind of financial advice, but even if he did, Maisel seems like the type to ignore the advice.
“Jay Myself” director Stephen Wilkes, who is also the documentary’s narrator, admits from the beginning of the film that he considers Maisel to be a friend and mentor. Perhaps that close friendship is why the movie doesn’t explore the deep psychological issues that led to Maisel’s hoarding. A more objective director would have confronted those issues instead of ignoring them like the proverbial elephant in the room.
Lady Parts Justice League, a New York City-based activist group founded by “The Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead, fights for reproductive rights and other women’s issues by mixing politics and comedy. In response to the Donald Trump administration’s efforts to place more restrictions on Planned Parenthood and other places that provide legal abortions, members of Lady Parts Justice League went on its first “Vagical Mystery Tour” across the U.S. in 2017, to do live stand-up comedy, raise money, and give support to pro-choice clinics, particularly in states where reproductive rights are at the most risk. The tour is the focus of most of this 13-episode documentary series, which is seeking a media outlet to air it. DOC NYC had the world premiere of the series’ first and third episodes.
Equally entertaining and alarming, the show hits all the right notes when it comes to delivering its message and educating people on current abortion issues, but the show’s episodes that were screened at the festival present a fairly limited view of pro-lifers as angry people (mostly men) spewing hateful chants and harassing people outside clinics. The best parts of the show are when the LPJL members are at the clinics where they can give their support, such as helping escort patients in and out of the clinics, providing meals to the staff, or working on landscaping that will improve the clinics’ safety. People who are pro-choice will have their beliefs confirmed by watching this series, while pro-lifers will just have certain stereotypes reinforced that pro-choicers are left-wing feminists. Since only two episodes were screened at DOC NYC, it’s unknown if the series will delve deeper into the reality that there is diversity on both sides of the issue.
What’s admirable about the series, based on the two episodes that screened at the festival, is that it doesn’t ignore the fact that the women’s movement has problems and tensions, such as how women of color in the movement can experience racism from white people who consider themselves to be liberals. Series executive producer Winstead does a good job of addressing this issue head-on during a group meeting that is shown in the series, and it seems as if she genuinely makes the women of color on her team feel valued and included. And the show isn’t afraid to expose that the LPJL doesn’t always have its act together, such as in one hilarious scene when the group members on tour find out that the Airbnb place they rented is a dumpy disappointment, and they have to scramble to find another place to stay.
A glaring void in the episodes that were screened is the scarcity of pro-choice men who seem to be allies to the Lady Parts Justice League cause. Most of the pro-choice men who are seen interacting with LPJL members are male clinic workers who aren’t part of the tour. It’s hard to tell from just two episodes how much effort LPJL made to include men in their day-to-day tour activities and who their male pro-choice allies are back in their home base.
And aside from Winstead mentioning that she had a legal abortion as a teenager (an abortion she says she doesn’t regret), there’s hardly any revelation of the Lady Parts Justice League members’ personal lives and what motivated them to sacrifice a great deal of their time to LPJL. A lot of people are pro-choice, but there’s more to the story if people want to spend time away from family and friends to visit pro-choice clinics around the U.S. and raise money for these clinics and other pro-choice causes. There’s no doubt that the LPJL members are passionate about their beliefs, but hopefully the series will show a more well-rounded view of their personalities instead of condensing them to wise-cracking or preachy soundbites.
Although Winstead’s history with “The Daily Show” might suggest that “Lady Parts Justice in the New World Order” could end up on Comedy Central, this show is better served to be on a TV network or streaming service where there aren’t restrictions on the show’s adult language. Whatever an individual’s beliefs are about abortion, “Lady Parts Justice in the New World Order” has a thought-provoking viewpoint that needs to be heard in a conversation that shouldn’t be sugarcoated or silenced.
Whenever there is an authorized documentary about someone who has died young after abusing drugs, the documentary often falls into the trap of glorifying the deceased as a lovable rebel instead of truly examining what led to the tragic circumstances around the untimely death. It’s an easy trap to fall into because the people closest to the deceased have to be interviewed for the documentary, but out of guilt and/or grief, they often don’t want to talk about the ugly realities of how drug addiction destroyed their loved one. This biography of New York City-based fashion photographer/artist Davide Sorrenti, a heroin addict who died of a kidney ailment in 1997 at the age of 20, often falls into that trap, but it does an excellent job of showing his free-spirited, charismatic personality and his meteoric rise in the 1990s due to popularizing the “heroin chic” trend. His edgy work appeared in magazines such as Interview and Ray Gun, and he took some of his most famous photos of model Jamie King, then known as James King, who was his heroin-addict girlfriend at the time. King (who cleaned up her life years ago after going to rehab) and model-turned-actress Milla Jovovich are two of several people interviewed who share fond memories of him in this documentary.
The most inspiring and best part of the film is how it shows that Davide did not wallow in self-pity over his thalassemia (also known as Cooley’s anemia), which required him to have frequent blood transfusions. Many of Davide’s close friends didn’t even know at first that he had the disease because he acted as if he was perfectly healthy. Doctors had once predicted that Davide wouldn’t live to become an adult, so that undoubtedly motivated his zest for life but also probably led to much of his reckless behavior. It makes it all the more tragic that he succumbed to the drug-addict lifestyle that contributed to his death.
The movie’s biggest flaw is that it tends to downplay how much nepotism was the main reason for why Davide was given so many career-boosting opportunities at such a young age. Davide came from a family of successful Italian-born photographers who were all interviewed in the film: older brother Mario, who was Davide’s unofficial mentor; older sister Vanina, who became a photographer after Davide’s death; and mother Francesca, who raised the kids as a divorcée, and worked her way up to the success that eventually benefited her children.
Before Davide began emulating Mario’s career path, he belonged to See Know Evil, an artistic group of young, male mischief makers (some of whom are interviewed in the film), who openly admit that their main activities were making graffiti, committing petty crimes and doing drugs. It’s the kind of teen rebellion that many young people experience, but the documentary fails to acknowledge how Davide’s race, class and family connections played a huge role in why he didn’t end up in the prison system when other young people who’ve done the same misdeeds aren’t as lucky. Davide was a product of the type of privilege that can glamorize drug addiction and “thug life,” as portrayed by young, pretty people who are mostly white and are from comfortably middle-class or upper-class backgrounds. Coming from that privilege, along with a fashion-insider family, is why the fashion industry easily embraced and celebrated Davide during the height of the 1990s “grunge” era, as a reaction against the over-the-top glitz of the 1980s.
Every drug addict has low points of doing shameful things that are difficult to talk about but could serve as a cautionary tale to help others, so it’s not too surprising that this authorized documentary doesn’t mention anything that would tarnish anyone’s reputation. Davide’s former girlfriend King and a few other people make vague references to a drug den type of atmosphere where Davide was living during the last year of his life, but the film has no detailed personal account from any of his loved ones about how bad things got for him when he was in the depths of his addiction or if anyone made any serious attempts to get him into rehab. The aftermath of Davide’s death is rushed through with video soundbites from Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and President Bill Clinton scolding the fashion industry for the “heroin chic” trend, effectively shaming the fad into extinction. There is also a brief mention of the efforts of Davide’s mother Francesca to honor his memory by being an activist in preventing drug addiction. Just like the photographs that Davide took, “See Know Evil” is a snapshot of the “grunge” era in fashion, but the movie is ultimately what the people who were in that culture wanted you to see, and the viewers know there’s more to the story that is not told.
“The Show’s the Thing: The Legendary Promoters of Rock”
Long before Live Nation existed, the live concert business in the U.S. was run by a mafia-styled fiefdom that had local concert promoters dominating their own territories. “The Show’s the Thing” is a superb lesson in music history that tells how Premier Talent founder Frank Barsalona and other concert promoters impacted the careers of rock stars in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, when several local promoters, not one big company such as Live Nation, handled a national tour. Although the movie gives credit to New York-based Barsalona (who died in 2012 at the age of 74) as being one of the chief architects and pioneers of the live concert industry as we know it today, there are plenty of other major concert promoters who are also given the spotlight. They include Ron Delsener (New York), Bill Graham (San Francisco), Larry Magid (Philadelphia), Arny Granat (Chicago), Don Law (Boston), Jules and Mike Belkin (Cleveland) and United Kingdom-based Harvey Goldsmith, who was influential in brokering deals for many British artists’ major U.S. tours.
Most of the promoters who are still alive were interviewed for this film, but don’t expect a lot of diversity when it comes to the documentary’s interviews. Rock music, now as it was then, is primarily the domain of white men. The only person of color interviewed in the film is Carlos Santana, and the few women who are interviewed tend to be the promoters’ family members who were also usually their co-workers. Taken in the context that this documentary is about what the music industry was like before the Internet and other technology made people more socially aware, it’s not a surprise that this movie isn’t too concerned with being politically correct about diversity.
The documentary has a great selection of archival footage, with significant mentions of Led Zeppelin, the Who, the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie and the Rolling Stones. It’s clear that the filmmakers are true music fans, based on the excellent use of songs and how they’re edited in the film. One of the most fascinating parts of the documentary is the behind-the-scenes drama of Live Aid, when a feud between Goldsmith and Graham nearly threatened to derail the historic 1985 concert. Jon Bon Jovi, one of the rock stars interviewed in the film, tells a few memorable stories from an artist’s perspective about his early days as a struggling musician and how concert promoters helped him and his band.
But the best stories come from the promoters themselves, some of whom have no shortage of ego in describing their importance in shaping the concert industry. Even when they talk about the bitter rivalries that inevitably happened, it’s with a huge dose of fond nostalgia and wistfulness. Most of the promoters ended up selling their businesses to larger companies, which led to the rise of Live Nation. The promoters’ recollections naturally have a grandiose tone of “we were so great in the good old days,” and there’s plenty of bragging about the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll lifestyle that many of them enjoyed. At times, the film comes across as a little too reverential to these promoters, since there’s no real counterpoint of people talking about the very dark side of these promoters’ music-industry heyday, when powerful men got away with things that would be much harder to conceal in this era of social media. But in general, “The Show’s the Thing” is a fantastic documentary that’s worth seeing for anyone who appreciates rock history and for those who want to discover how some of the people who work behind the scenes can be just as interesting as the celebrities.
British-born, New York City-based documentary filmmaker Maxine Trump (no relation to Donald Trump) turns the spotlight on herself and other women who haven chosen not to have children, including a woman in her 20s who wants to be sterilized and author Marcia Drut-Davis, who caused controversy in 1974 by going on “60 Minutes” with her then-husband to declare that she didn’t want to have children. “To Kid or Not to Kid” is a solid and watchable effort, told with Trump’s first-person narration, but the film could have benefited from having a wider scope of people interviewed and more introspection from the director/narrator. Trump, who is in her 40s and married, naturally interviews people in her family, such as her husband, her widowed mother and her sister who is a divorced mom. She visits the NotMom convention, an annual gathering of women who do not have kids because of choice or circumstance. Trump also interviews women who chose to have children; some say they regret the decision, while others say they’re happy with their choice to become mothers. The fathers of these children are not interviewed, most likely because Trump wanted this film to have a primarily female perspective. But there isn’t much diversity either with the women who are interviewed, since almost all are white and middle-class.
While making the documentary, Trump openly admits to sometimes being conflicted about deciding not to become a mother. It’s fairly obvious she is using the movie to reassure herself that she made the right decision to not have children. And that’s okay, but she left a lot of people out of what could have been a more well-rounded documentary about how family planning and reproductive issues can affect people. For example, the film doesn’t have interviews with anyone who is openly infertile, or people whose relationships are affected because one partner wants to have kids and the other one doesn’t. Adoption is also pretty much ignored in this film, since the focus is primarily on whether or not to have biological children. This documentary’s total running time is fairly short (about 75 minutes), but it could have been longer to explore these different perspectives.
Trump repeatedly mentions statistics and her concerns about the world being overpopulated as the main reasons why she doesn’t want to have kids. Although many people think being child-free by choice is a selfish decision, Trump firmly believes that it’s more selfish for people to have large families when the world’s resources are being depleted. It’s a viewpoint that led to her being estranged from a longtime female friend who doesn’t agree with that opinion. Trump tries to reconnect with the friend in this documentary. During the course of the film, Trump shows some self-awareness in understanding that it doesn’t benefit anyone to be negatively judgmental about choices to become a parent or how many children is appropriate for a family who can afford it.
But more self-awareness from Trump was needed for this film. Although Trump mentions in the beginning of the documentary that she had an operation when she was younger that would have made pregnancy difficult for her (and she shows the physical scars on camera to prove it), she doesn’t give any psychological introspection on the obvious emotional scars that the operation left. Trump and her husband come across as likable, intelligent, responsible adults, but sometimes handle the issue of having kids in a way that’s more like how immature young people would handle it. For example, Trump (who says she got married later in life) reveals that before she and her husband got married, they never talked to each other about whether or not they wanted to have kids. In the film, she doesn’t address why they avoided talking about such an important issue before making the commitment of marriage. A documentary filmmaker is supposed to be curious, and a more insightful director would have answered the question of why this couple didn’t bother to discuss the parenting issue before getting married.
And in one scene that could be interpreted as somewhat staged to create drama for the film, Trump announces that after she and her husband have had sex, they’re in a mild panic because they’re not sure if the morning-after pill is available over the counter. The movie then shows Trump and her husband going on the Internet and trying to find out how to get the pill without a prescription. It’s an “Oh my God, we might have gotten pregnant, now what do we do” scene that looks disingenuous, because Trump is close to menopausal age and has had an operation that would make it difficult for her to be pregnant, and surely it’s not the first time that these middle-aged, married people have thought about their birth-control options. They aren’t naive teenagers, after all. And without giving away any spoilers, someone in their marriage eventually gets a different operation (which is documented in the film) that essentially ends their need for birth control anyway.
Another issue some people might have with the film is that Trump’s marriage is not exactly “child-free.” Trump mentions that after she and her husband got married, they found out that he has underage twin daughters from another relationship. The children, who are not shown on camera, do not live with Trump and her husband, but Trump wonders how being a stepmother will affect her marriage, as her husband adjusts to being included in his daughters’ lives. A question that Trump never asks her husband on camera is how her decision to not have children would have affected their marriage if it meant that he would possibly never become a father. It’s a difficult question that not too many people would be brave enough to ask or answer honestly on camera. Overall, “To Kid or Not to Kid” is a well-intentioned, but somewhat narrow-viewed, effort to explore the issue of choosing to become a parent or not. It’s a complex issue that affects a diverse array of people, and would be better-suited for a docuseries instead of a movie.
The ninth annual DOC NYC, which takes place in New York City, is one of the world’s leading documentary festivals, with a slate of more than 300 films from a diverse array of topics. The 2018 edition of DOC NYC, which takes place November 8 to November 15, has an outstanding variety of feature films and short films, with several of the movies focusing on under-represented people and marginalized communities. Most of the festival’s events take place at the IFC Center, SVA Theatre and Cinépolis Chelsea.
DOC NYC, which was co-founded by Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen, has also had an excellent track record when it comes to diversity and inclusion. The event has a larger percentage of films from female directors than most other film festivals. Beyond the gender parity issue, this year’s DOC NYC is a true definition of a “world-class” festival, since there are numerous ethnicities and cultures from around the world represented in the films at the festival. DOC NYC also offers panel discussions, with most of the discussions geared to sharing behind-the-scenes knowledge about filmmaking.
Celebrities expected to attend the event include “Documentary Now!” co-creator Seth Meyers; “Out of Omaha” executive producer J. Cole, who is also known for his successful music career; “Fahrenheit 11/9” director Michael Moore; “Quincy” co-director Rashida Jones; “Echo in the Canyon” star Jakob Dylan; “Cracked Up” star Darrell Hammond; and “Olympia” star Olympia Dukakis.
There are many films at DOC NYC that have premiered elsewhere, and some films that have already been released in theaters, including the critically acclaimed “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” “Free Solo,” “RBG,” “Fahrenheit 11/9,” “Quincy” and “Three Identical Strangers.” However, DOC NYC also has several world premieres. Here are the feature films (and some TV episodes) that will have their world premieres at DOC NYC. A complete schedule can be found here.
New York-based psychoanalyst Ofra Bloch, a native of Israel, travels to Germany, Israel and Palestine to explore anti-Semitism. World Premiere: November 12 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
In 1972, Aretha Franklin recorded her best-selling gospel album “Amazing Grace” at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. This film, directed by Sydney Pollack, chronicles the recording of the album. Due to legal reasons, including Franklin’s objections to the movie being made public, the release of the “Amazing Grace” documentary was delayed for decades. With Franklin’s passing in 2018 and with her family’s approval, this movie is now finally getting released. World Premiere: November 12 at SVA Theatre.
“Beyond the Bolex”
Director Alyssa Bolsey, whose great-grandfather Jacques Bolsey invented the Bolex camera, takes a personal journey examining the history behind the Bolex. World premiere: November 8 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
Comedic director Steve Burrows takes a serious look at medical malpractice, which has affected his own life: His mother underwent hip replacement surgery that went badly, which put her in a coma that left her with permanent brain damage. World premiere: November 13 at IFC Center.
Three young Indian women in a conservative Muslim community aim to improve their lives through education. World Premiere: November 15 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
A profile of famed New York journalists/columnists Jimmy Breslin (Daily News) and Pete Hamill (New York Post, Daily News). World Premiere: November 15 at SVA Theatre.
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Buzz Bissinger, the author of “Friday Night Lights” and a frequent Vanity Fair contributor, opens up about his personal life, including his cross-dressing and how it has affected his marriage. World Premiere: November 10 at SVA Theatre.
Since 1996, Townsend Harris High School in Queens, New York, has been holding a simulation of a nationally prominent election for a semester, with students portraying the candidates and other people involved in the real-life campaigns. This documentary is about the school’s re-enactment of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, with a Ukranian-American playing Donald Trump and a Pakistani-American playing Hillary Clinton. World Premiere: November 10 at IFC Center.
The story of 15-year-old, U.S.-born Jamil Sunsin, a new Jersey resident whose family is torn apart when his undocumented parents and older sister are deported back to Honduras under the Trump Administration’s immigration policies. World Premiere: November 14 at IFC Center.
This documentary explores how U.S. residents living in low-income zip codes get disproportionately inferior aid after natural disasters, starting with the 1995 heatwave that hit Chicago and claimed the lives of more than 700 people, and including 2005’s Hurricane Katrina and 2012’s Superstorm Sandy. World Premiere: November 11 at SVA Theatre.
A biography of former “Saturday Night Live” comedian Darrell Hammond, who has been open about his troubled history of mental illness and drug addiction, which stem from his abusive childhood. World Premiere: November 14 at SVA Theatre.
The story behind the creative conflicts between Martha Graham and choreographer Andonis Foniadakis, who was commissioned by the Martha Graham Dance Company to create a new piece. World Premiere: November 14 at SVA Theatre.
A biography of Juilliard School acting instructor Moni Yakim, whose former students include award-winning Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain and Patti LuPone. World Premiere: November 11 at SVA Theatre.
This film shows how New York City’s Bronx borough was able to rebuild after devastating fires in the 1970s displaced thousands of residents, who were mostly black and Latino. World Premiere: November 10 at SVA Theatre.
Dennis and Lois have had a decades-long love affair with each other and with rock music. The couple met in 1975 at New York’s famed CBGB club and have remained “superfans” of rock, even at an age when most people outgrow the fan activities that Dennis and Lois still do, such as extensive traveling to concerts, volunteering to sell band merchandise, and inviting touring musicians to stay in their home. World Premiere: November 14 at IFC Center.
IFC’s “Documentary Now!” series (created by Rhys Thomas and “Saturday Night Live” alumni Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Seth Meyers) is a show that presents a mockumentary in every episode. The “Original Cast Album: Co-Op” mockumentary, starring John Mulaney and Renee Elise Goldsberry, spoofs the 1970 D.A. Pennebaker documentary “Original Cast Album: Company.” World Premiere: November 9 at SVA Theatre.
The Showtime series “Enemies: The President, Justice & the FBI,” from Oscar-and-Emmy-winning documentarian Alex Gibney, will world premiere its first episode, “That’s What Friends Are For,” at DOC NYC. World Premiere: November 12 at IFC Center.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtYp21q1WIQ
“The Great Mother”
A profile of immigration activist Nora Sandigo, who has become the legal U.S. guardian for more than 2,000 U.S.-born children whose undocumented parents have been deported. World Premiere: November 15 at IFC Center.
An inside look at the sale of photographer Jay Maisel’s 72-room New York City studio building, which was one of the city’s biggest private real-estate deals. World Premiere: November 11 at SVA Theatre.
DOC NYC has the world premiere of the first half of this Sundance TV miniseries, which chronicles the tragedy of 1978’s Jonestown cult massacre that took place in Guyana. World Premiere: November 9 at IFC Center.
Lady Parts Justice, an activist group founded by “The Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead, fights for reproductive rights and other women’s issues by mixing politics and comedy. DOC NYC will have the world premiere of two episodes from this documentary series. World Premiere: November 11 at SVA Theatre.
A biography of Harold Feinstein, who specialized in photographing people in New York City, especially at Brooklyn’s Coney Island. World Premiere: November 14 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
This film chronicles the battles faced by Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir in her quest to have the International Basketball Federation allow players to wear hijabs. World Premiere: November 10 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
The story of Ren, the first transgender girl to compete in West Haven, Connecticut’s Little Miss Westie Pageant. World Premiere: November 10 at IFC Center.
The biography of disgraced football star Aaron Hernandez, who died in prison after being convicted of murder. World Premiere: November 14 at IFC Center.
Oscar-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple tells the story of five refugee children whose families have relocated from war-torn Syria and Iraq to Canada. World Premiere: November 13 at IFC Center.
A biography of actress Olympia Dukakis, who is best known for her Oscar-winning supporting role in “Moonstruck.” World Premiere: November 11 at SVA Theatre.
An investigative look at how politically motivated “fake news” was handled in the former Soviet Union, decades before it became a hot-button topic about the 2016 U.S. presidential election. World Premiere: November 10 at SVA Theatre.
African-American twin brothers Darcell and Darrell Trotter are the subjects of this film, which chronicles the twins’ lives in racially divided Omaha, Nebraska. World Premiere: November 10 at SVA Theatre.
The story of a woman named Raf’aa, who flees war-torn Syria, leaving behind her husband and two sons. While living in a refugee camp in Germany, she hopes to reunite with them, but her husband and children are stuck in Greece. World Premiere: November 11 at IFC Center.
A biography of fashion photographer Davide Sorrenti, who had a meteoric rise in the 1990s due to popularizing the “heroin chic” trend, but he was troubled by his own real-life heroin addiction. World Premiere: November 9 at SVA Theatre.
The history of how Frank Barsalona and other concert promoters impacted the careers of rock stars in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. World Premiere: November 15 at IFC Center.
This documentary follows four American teenagers who study abroad, each in a different country that surpasses the United States when it comes to education ratings: Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and South Korea. World Premiere: November 11 at IFC Center.
This spotlight is on the Greenwich House Senior Center in New York City and many of its quirky members and visitors. World Premiere: November 10 at SVA Theatre.
The controversial activity of hunting animals for sport is explored in this film, which follows hunters in the Alaskan wilds. World Premiere: November 11 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
“Takumi” is the Japanese word for “artisan.” This film showcases a diverse array of Japanese artisans, include a chef, a car-factory inspector, a carpenter and a traditional paper-cut artist. World Premiere: November 11 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
Documentary filmmaker Maxine Trump (no relation to Donald Trump) turns the spotlight on herself and other women who haven chosen not to have children. World Premiere: November 11 at IFC Center.
The story behind successful 1980s model Hoyt Richards and his secret double life as a member of the Eternal Values cult. World Premiere: November 13 at Cinépolis Chelsea.
